ODSTs
by SPRK
Summary: The hidden story of two ODSTs in Halo 3 ODST. Please R&R! Note:This story is now finished, thanks for all the views and thank you for reviewing. There is going to be a sequel, but it won't be for a while.
1. Prepare to Drop?

ODSTs

A Short Story By SPRK

Alex

Way Too Long After Drop

New Mombasa

Africa

Earth

Sol System

Milky Way Galaxy

The Universe

Existence

Alex Keyes awoke, he was trapped inside a dark space, wait, he was in his ODST drop pod or SOEIV. Alex clutched his head with one hand and tried to remember what happened. He was at Las Vegas when suddenly, no, that wasn't it. He remembered being aboard a UNSC ship when they were given the orders to drop and then…. That carrier went to slipspace!!! He must have hit something and been knocked out!

Alex armed the explosives on the pod, ejected the door, then jumped out which turned out to be a bad idea because his pod was buried in a building and more than a couple feet off of the ground. Alex realized this a bit too late as he looked down at the cement and braced himself for impact. He hit the ground feet first and quickly silenced the annoying warning noise in his HUD that warned him that he was injured.

He looked around and observed his surroundings. His first thought was, "What the hell happened here!?!" The city of New Mombasa looked like it had been hit by a nuclear bomb, or a gigantic twister. As Alex looked up he noticed the crowning feature of New Mombasa, its space elevator, was gone. What was left of the space elevator was burning or charred. If a twister had hit New Mombasa, it was a twister made out of fire and brimstone.

Alex looked around again, he had two choices; he could either take a road leading off into the dark city to the right, or the dark road leading off into the city at the right. Alex chose the right path. He walked along the road for awhile before stopping, he heard barking noises near him, Grunts. Alex ducked behind a nearby building for cover and held his gun up, ready to fire if the Grunts spotted him. "Hey!" Alex swirled around to find a lone Grunt behind him, its plasma pistol holstered at its side.

"Are you a human?"Alex was bewildered; he knew Grunts were not the brightest beings in the galaxy, but asking him if he was a human? Alex decided that he should take advantage of this Grunt's particular dumbness.

"No, I'm a Sanghelli(Elite)." He replied. Alex watched as the Grunt stumbled backwards and suddenly pulled out its plasma pistol and aimed it at his head.

"Brutes told us that Elites are bad now! Me no listen to you!" The Elite's were not part of the Covenant anymore? What backwards universe had Alex stumbled into? Either way he had to get rid of the grunt before it raised the alarm. Alex punched the grunt in the head, knocking the little alien out cold. He knew he had to move fast, he had to link up with the other surviving ODSTs, finish the mission at all costs. As long as the cost wasn't higher than $9.95.

* * *


	2. Meet Chris

Chris

Way To Long After Drop

New Mombasa

New Mombasa

New Mombasa

NEW FREAKING MOMBASA!!!

Chris awoke with a start; he was lying on the sidewalk with his silenced SMG to the side of him and his pistol in his hand. What had happened, then he remembered. He had taken manual control of his SOEIV after Dare had given them the order to change course and then…. That dang Carrier jumped to slipspace and then…. Oh yeah, he smashed into several peoples pods before hitting being hit by someone else's. The impact must have knocked him unconscious. The only question now was where was his SOEIV?

Chris heard a whistling noise overhead, it wasn't whistling really, it was that noise you hear when something's falling at high speeds… Chris realized what it was and jumped to the side only a second before a drop pod landed right where he was before. Chris looked up, and saw more drop pods. Where the hell were these things coming from?

Chris ran back and forth, in and out of the grass in the courtyard he was in as he attempted to get away from drop pods that were falling like rain from the sky. He wondered once again where the hell these things were coming from, there weren't any UNSC ships in the sky that he could see, and the drop pods looked empty. Who would be jettisoning empty drop pods? Chris didn't have much time to think though, because weaving its way through the drop pods that had finally stopped falling were what he would guess was 40 to 50 jackals and a dozen grunts. Chris pulled out his Silenced SMG, this was going to get ugly.

Delta Halo

Substance System

Bridge of In Amber Clad

Jacob Keyes Miranda Keyes

Things weren't looking good for the In Amber Clad, the Flood had managed to infiltrate the ship, and were rapidly taking control of it. Captain Keyes Miranda Keyes trusted her marines with the ship, she knew they could hold the Flood off, she had the utmost belief that even without Chief on board they could. Ahh screw it, without Chief on board they were screwed. She knew it, Johnson knew it, the Marines knew it, the ODSTs knew it, hell, the Grunt she had locked in her room probably even knew it.

A Marine ran up and saluted her with his palm flipped backwards to his forward before yelling at her, "MA'M WE'VE JETTISONED THE ENGINE, SENT A MESSAGE TO LORD HOOD, RICKROLLED THE PROPHET OF TRUTH, AND INTIATED THE COLE PROTOCOL, ANYTHING ELSE?" Keyes thought, this could be the most important decision of her career.

"I want my personal Pelican prepped for launch, Johnson and some marines on it, and I want you to launch yourself and our remaining Pelicans through that conveniently located Slipspace portal to New Mombasa. I also want you to launch all of our SOEVIS through it. With any luck we'll hit something critical in New Mombasa and blow up all the Covenant there."

The Marine thought about this for a second and then responded,

"BUT MA'M, ISN'T THERE A CHANCE THAT THE ODST'S THAT WERE DROPPED THERE SURVIVED THE SLIPSPACE RUPTURE AND EVEN KNOW ARE DOING SOMETHING VITAL THAT MAY HELP US WIN THE WAR?"

"Someone once said something like that to my father once." Keyes replied.

"WHAT HAPPENED MA'M?"

"Well, my dad pulled out a knive and stabbed him to death." Keyes replied.

The Marine took two steps away from Miranda, "MA'M, I'M GOING TO GET AS FAR AWAY FROM YOU AS I CAN!"

Miranda smiled, that always worked.


	3. Backstories Make the World Go Around

Alex

10 Minutes After Drop

Da Streetz of New Mombaza

Yo Dog Peace Out!!!

Alex heard a ringing noise and turned around to aim his pistol at a dangerous, phone? Who the hell would be calling? The city was on fire and half of it was blown up, how the hell were the phones even still working? Either way, Alex wasn't about to leave a ringing phone unanswered, it was just plain rude. Alex walked over and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" he said

"ERROR: ERROR: SYSTEM CRITICAL: IDENIFYING USER: CODE: DARE………"  
"What the heck, do you even know who this is, I'm in the middle of a Covenant occupied city and" Alex replied angrily before being cut off.

"ODST SPRK RECOGNIZED, DOWNLOADING CITY MAP TO VISR DATABASE."  
"Superintendent, is that you?" Alex asked the computerized voice incredibly. How could the New Mombasa city A.I. have survived all of that?

"GO FIND YOUR SQUADMATE'S BEACONS YOU TWIT."

"Wait, what do you, dangit he hung up." Alex frowned, that was definitely the Superintendent. Alex took a step backward as a map of the city flashed into his vision via his VISR. Alex hated to admit it, but the Superintendent had done a good job with the map. Not only did the map show the last know locations of his squad mates, it also showed the locations of emergency weapons stockpiles, gang activities, graffiti, and many of the cities other famous attractions!

Alex had wanted to visit New Mombasa since he had first heard of during school on Reach. His teachers had told him all about other planets, and New Mombasa had been one of his favorite locations to see in the holotheater that the school had. Of course Reach had plenty of neat things too, he thought as he walked toward the nearest area the Superintendent had marked, a place called Tayari plaza. His town on Reach was in walking distance of an ONI facility, and he recalled with nostalgia the barbed wire fences and shoot to kill signs that marked the land behind his backyard.

Of course things weren't always good on Reach, he had hated the weekly glassing drills where he was told that in case of glassing they were to lay on the floor. What good would lying on the floor do against a beam of superheated plasma? It made no sense at all. Alex was jolted from his sea of memories when a bolt of plasma streaked past him, he had been spotted!

Alex ducked behind the nearest building, he was sure the beam had been from a Beam Rifle, since it had only been fired once. Alex peeked around the corner to find himself staring at a Jackal on one of the rooftops. He quickly ducked back around before it had a chance to fire at him again and pulled out his pistol. He ducked back around and fired three shots at the Jackal. The first shot pierced the creatures arm and it let out a screech, the second one hit the creature's Beam Rifle, and the third went straight through its head finishing it off.

Alex rushed over to the creature and grabbed its Beam Rifle, he turned on his VISR mode to help him see better. He examined the Beam Rifle, if it was beautiful without the blue outline of a weapon from the VISR database on it; it was even more beautiful with it on. He quickly pulled up the schematics and reloading schemes for the weapon.

He had always wanted to use a Beam Rifle, but it seemed that every time he got close to the damn thing it was either out of ammo or in the hands of another ODST. That other ODST was usually his best friend and squad mate Chris. While Alex had been trained in what other ODSTs jokingly called tech support, Chris had been trained in sniping, and he was damn good at it. Throughout his time with Chris Alex had seen him pull quite a few fancy tricks, everything from eliminating 5 Jackal Snipers with only 5 Bullets left in his Sniper Rifle and no spare clips anywhere near him, to hitting a target the size of a bottle cap without using any scopes.

He holstered the Beam Rifle on his back and took out his Silenced SMG; he was going to save that baby for a special occasion. He pulled up the map of the city on his visor again, he was almost to Tayari Plaza. "Good," he thought, he didn't want to risk any more encounters with the Covenant again. Alex stopped dead in his tracks as heard a familiar roar like sound. He had been spotted again and this time it wasn't just a Jackal, it was an assorted group of brutes and grunts, this was not going to end well.

Alex turned his VISR mode off and grabbed and armed a frag grenade which he threw at the nearest Grunt. The alien panicked and shot its plasma pistol wildly at the grenade. The grenade blew up and several shards impaled the Grunt in the neck, Alex watched as the small creature was thrown several feet into the air before its body landed right in the middle of the small group of grunts that were firing at him. Upon seeing the lifeless body of their comrade, panic overtook the naturally cowardly creatures, and they started running wildly in all directions. Alex took advantage of the situation and ducked out of cover, downing several of the creatures with his SMG before being forced to retreat by a barrage of plasma fire from the Brutes.

Dangit, the Brutes had him pinned, if he moved out of cover to shoot them their continues barrage of plasma would kill him within seconds. He wondered when they move in for the kill, he was no match for a Brute. Suddenly he heard a roar and the first Brute rounded the corner and held its hands up to smash him. He had to think of a way to kill it, and quick. As the Brutes arms came down Alex whipped out his Beam Rifle and blocked the Brutes arms with it. He then dropped the Beam Rifle suddenly and whipped out his pistol. He stuck it straight at the Brutes neck and squeezed the trigger several times. At such a close range, the bullets pierced the Brute's armor and went straight into its killing it instantly.

Two more Brutes came around the corner and Alex finished them off with his Beam Rifle. "Heh", he said aloud, "Shoot Reload Repeat." As he ran away from the scene of the fight and toward Tayari Plaza.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

A lone ODST sat on a roof and stared down the barrel of his sniper scope as he watched another ODST run away from his location and toward Tayari Plaza, the ODST didn't attempt to make contact with the other ODST. Instead, he marked Tayari Plaza on his VISR Database and retreated back inside the building.

_____________________________________________________________________________________


	4. Blame Halsey

Chris

ERROR/SLIPSPACE ANOMALY/BAD UNSC TIMEKEEPING

DATA CORRUPTED----PRESS ENTER TO DELETE SYSTEM

MICROSOFT WINS AGAIN!!!

CORRUPT DATA: ERROR…… ERROR….. ERROR……

PLEASE CONTACT UNSC COM#293749286

OR BLAME ON SECOND THOUGHT JUST BLAME HALSEY

Chris's eyes darted back and forth between the numerous Grunts and Jackals that surrounded him. Oh what he would give to have a Scorpion Tank right now. Suddenly a high pitched screech pierced the air around him. The Grunts and Jackals froze where they were and raised their weapons high in what Chris knew as a salute.

A Jackal moved through the mob of Grunts and Jackals, Grunts and Jackals dove out of the way to allow it passage to Chris. The Jackal finally pushed out of the mob and started to walk toward Chris. The other Covenant in the plaza raised their weapons and pointed them at Chris. He knew if he moved he would be shot, so he did the only thing he could, he dropped his weapons. The Jackal froze where it was in midstep, recognizing the appropriate response to its approach.

Chris walked over to the Jackal and saw that it had the distinctive pink shield and spike covered helmet of a Jackal Shipmistress. The Jackal wasn't as tall as Chris, but she was taller than normal, reaching to Chris's shoulders. The Jackal opened its mouth and let out a loud roar like squawk that only confirmed Chris's suspicions, it wanted a Yo Mamma fight, to the death. Chris turned his translator off, he knew Jackalish by heart, and the translator malfunctioned far too often.

Chris took off his helmet so the Shipmistress could see he was not going to amplify his voice with the armor's speakers. Chris made the first move and let out a squawk which roughly translated into, "Yo Momma's so ugly, she couldn't even get a date with a FLOOD!!!" The crowd of Jackals and Grunts let out various ooohs and awws at Chris's insult. The Jackal Shipmistress let out an angry squawk at Chris that roughly translated to threatening to bite his head off and use it to beat his kin to death. Chris didn't answer back, it was customary in Jackal Culture to never respond to a Shipmistress during a Yo Momma fight. The Shipmistress let out a bloodcurdling squawk.

"Yo Momma's so stupid, that Master Chief killed her because he mistook her for a Grunt!" The Grunts didn't cheer this time. They were more than a little tired of that joke. Chris let out three short squawks, Jackalish for,

"Yo Momma's so fat, that when a Brute Chieftain hit her with a Gravity Hammer, it bounced off her and killed the Chieftain!" The crowd of Jackals and Grunts oohed and ahhed again, calling a Jackal's mom fat was considered a serious insult in Jackal culture. The Jackal Shipmistress wheeled back from the verbal blow, Chris took advantage of this sign of weakness and per Jackal custom took the Ship mistress's turn, he let out a loud squawk "Not only is Yo Momma fat, she's old, and I mean REAL old." Chris held his breath, this was it this would decide the winner. "YO MOMMA'S OLDER THAN THE PROHPET OF TRUTH!" the crowd let out a shriek but Chris wasn't finished, "AND LARRY KING COMBINED!!!"

The crowd went wild, the Shipmistress screamed in fury before throwing herself down on the ground, Chris went over to the Shipmistress and took her blue and white Energy Stave from the ground. He took off her helmet and shield, and then plunged the Energy Stave into the Jackal Shipmistress's neck. He pulled it out and held it up so the crowd could see that he had won.

The Jackals and Grunts in the plaza panicked, not knowing what to do, with no clear leader, they turned on each other and began fighting. Chris ignored the fight and was about to leave when he saw something lying by the Jackal Shipmistress, a small datacard, Chris examined it and realized that it probably contained some other ODST's mission log. Chris grabbed it along with the Jackal's shield and Energy Stave and slipped away into the darkness.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

SubChapter:1

Rookie

New Mombasa

Sadie's Apartment

Outside of Sadie's Apartment

The Rookie sniffled again as a Kwassas passed him another piece of tissue before going on with his explanation. "And I think my squads dead, and I, I'm all alone." Kwassas passed the Rookie another piece of tissue.

"It's ok man, it's ok, we understand how you feel." Kwassas explained. "Just let it all out, that's it."

"Yeah, we know what you've been through man. We have Brutes and Jackals bossing us around and making our lives miserable." The other Grunt, Yabap, said.

"Just hang in their man, everything will turn out all right eventually." Kwassas said while passing the Rookie another tissue. The Rookie sniffled again.

"Thanks guys. You two are, are, my best friends!" The Rookie confessed.

"Same with you man, same with you." Kwassas responded.

"Yeah, too bad I have to go kill you know." Said The Rookie getting up while Kwassas and Yabap exchanged scared looks. "I'm sorry, hey I'll give you guys a ten second head start, maybe you'll outrun me." The Rookie suggested hopefully. Kwassas and Yabap were already gone. "Bye guys, see you later!" The Rookie called out into the night as he left to go try to find his squadmates.

_____________________________________________________________________________________


	5. Two Hunters

Alex

Tyari Tryia Tari Tayari Plaza

New Mombasa GRUNTS RULE!!!

Alex grabbed Dare's Recon Variant helmet from its resting place next to her SEOIV. Alex inspected it and found to his horror that it was cut down the middle by something. If Dare had been wearing it, then she was either dead, dying, or incapacitated. Alex put the helmet back down next to her SEOIV and activated his VISR Helmet Uplink.

"Super!" He shouted into it. "I need a SITREP, what happened here?" Alex waited a few seconds, "Super!" Alex sighed, he hated it when AI's acted like that. Suddenly his COM crackled to life and he heard a metallic and computerized voice speak. "SITREP DENIED, USER SPRK DOES NOT HAVE CLEARANCE TO!" Alex cut the A.I. off.

"Override New Mombasa Superintendent Class A.I. Security Protocols Alpha through Beta. UNSC Code Alpha 319AB-57ONI5892." Alex didn't have time for the Superintendent's security protocols right now, he had to get a move on before more Covenant came to investigate this place. Alex paused, something wasn't right, the Superintendent was acting extremely weird. He wondered if something had happened during the Covenant attack that damaged the Superintendent. Either way it wasn't his concern, he needed to find out what had happened to Dare.

"Error, data corruption in Sector owh;ofhwejew. Assessing available logs, transferring logs to Major DATA CORRUPTION." Alex froze in his tracks, the A.I. was definitely damaged, but it was a valuable asset. Alex grabbed Dare's helmet from its resting place and backed into one of the nearby buildings. He wasn't going to take any chances of being found. He wandered through the halls of the building, he paused and entered an unlocked door, he locked it and sat down. Time to see what had happened here.

____________________________________________________________________________________  
Gunnery Sergeant Buck

Immediantly(30.423492039492048920348290345290830924milliseconds) After Drop.

Alex watched in amazement as Buck first battled his way through Brutes, Grunts, Jackals, and finally two Hunters before reaching Dare's pod only to discover that she wasn't there. What intrigued Alex the most though, besides the fact that the Hunters didn't burn Buck's face off, was the Engineer. Alex had seen them on other ops, ONI thought they were some sort of Covenant Biological Supercomputer. And that was why Alex seriously doubted Romeo's theory that the Engineer had killed Dare. Unless Dare was allergic to floating sack things, Alex seriously doubted she had been killed by the Engineer.

Alex replayed the footage of the Hunters again, still not believing that Buck had actually come face to face with two Hunters and survived. Then he noticed something he hadn't before, one of the Hunter's Armor was Gold. What the heck was a Hunter doing with Golden armor? Alex pondered the meaning of this for a bit, from what ONI knew several of the Covenant's ranks were symbolized by the color of their armor. If this hypotheses was correct, than not only had Buck gone head to toe with two Hunters and won, one of those Hunters was a veteran. Alex said the video to replay once again, but was stopped by a message from the Superintendent that read.

"DEAL WITH IT AND GET OFF YOUR CHATTER YOU STUPID TWIT!" Alex sighed, the A.I. was right, he did need to get the hell out of here, and be careful of using his Chatter around here. He had a job to do, something was fishy around here, and it wasn't Buck's supposed two Hunter kill.

_____________________________________________________________________________________


	6. Chapter Sponsored By ONI

Chris

New Mombasa

Kalway

Industries

Larange

Line

DR. Drive

Halsey Street

Chris made sure the door behind him was locked before turning around, the building he was in seemed to belong to a company called Kalway Industries. Chris surmised by the fake plants and chairs that the room he was in was probably the waiting room, he also surmised that with all the dead marines and Covenant lying around it had probably been the site of a major battle hours earlier. Chris took some time to say a eulogy for his fallen comrades, collected their dogtags and ammo, and marched up the stairs.

The stairs lead to a hallway with doors on each side of it, Chris was about to open one of the doors when he realized that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. If the Grunts and Jackals decided to come back, the room would turn into a dead end. Chris went up another flight of stairs and found, the same thing. Chris went up the stairs again, and found another identical hallway, whoever ran this company must have had an obsession for long identical hallways. Chris decided that his best bet was to continue up the stairs until he found a room that had at least adequate defense.

Chris climbed the final set of stairs and found himself in front of a locked door, he was about to ask the Superintendent to open it when he realized that anything could be inside a locked door. Like monsters, or zombies, or British people, or, heaven forbid, Dr. Catherine Halsey. Chris shuddered at the very thought of the coffee mug throwing devil of his youth being behind the door. And then opened it using the set of keycodes the Superintendent had uploaded to his VISR earlier. Chris saw a spacious office room, there was a huge window in it, classical paintings on the wall, and a gold plated nametag thing on a mahogany desk with the name of the owner. One Bernie Lawrence Madoff, Chris stopped in midstep for a second, he could have sworn he had heard that name before.

Chris sat down in the nice leather chair behind the desk and reclined, he then inserted the data chip into his helmet, all set for a movie except, something was missing. Chris pulled out a bag of instacook popcorn and opened it, he stood back as the bag sealed itself then popped the popcorn inside, when it was done it let out a large ding and unflated revealing a bowl of ready to eat popcorn. Chris smiled, sat down, took his helmet off and waved his head a bit. He set the helmet down next to him and placed the data chip inside the desks holoslot, finally he tasted the popcorn, it was just like Grandma used to make.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Kazingo Boulevard

Mickey (Beats Children!!!)

Sometime After Drop(About the time the SI stopped caring)

Chris watched as Mickey took a joyride in a Scorpion tank, destroying everything in his path and generally causing as much damage to people's homes and businesses as he did to the Covenant unfortunate enough to get in his way. Chris reviewed the entire video twice, it was good to see that at least some of his squadmates had survived the crash. He marked Dutch and Mickey as alive in his roster. That left Dare, Buck, Alex, Romeo, and the Rookie unaccounted for. Chris rewinded the video, something had caught his eye at the beginning. Chris watched as Mickey got into the Scorpion Tank, something flew by him that looked like a rocket, Chris paused the video and looked up at the right hand corner. Crouching there was a lone ODST with a rocket launcher, the one that had just nearly missed the tank, Chris new it could be only one person. But he also knew that it was impossible, Alex and him had gotten rid of Aaron Nomante at Reach? Well, he hoped they had, but just in case he had to get to Alex quick, and before Aaron Nomante did. Chris put his helmet back on and the data chip back in his pocket, he then opened the door, and was met with a horrible sight.

_____________________________________________________________________________________


	7. Brute Shaped Shrubs

Short chapter this week, I'm tired out, and didn't get much done. But to make up for it here is some backstory goodness based off of the famous Red vs Blue PSA's

Alex:Hi I'm Alex, from the not so popular fanfiction ODSTs

Chris:And I'm Chris, from the same fanfiction.

Alex: Alot of you may be wondering how we both know things that the average ODST wouldn't.

Chris:The answer is, we're on the UNSC Security Council.

Alex:And if you know what that is, you have no life.

Chris:Wouldn't that mean you have no life?

Alex:Stop ruining my faulty logic

Chris: Ahh but it's fun.... Fine... Now you may be wondering how we got there.

Alex:And to help you, we've made this chart.

Beginning of War: UNSC=Lots of experienced people. Covenant=Lot's of Jackal Snipers

Current Stage of War: UNSC= Lot of people with little experience, a few person with lots of experience, a few people with a bit higher than medium experience.

Alex:So basically everyone above us died and we got promoted and eventually got to the Security Council.

Chris:Which is pretty pathetic if you think about it.

Alex and Chris: Until next week, we out!

Alex

New Mombasa

District 5

Unsafe

Very Unsafe

Would Be Safer next to a Suicidal Grunt

Alex slipped around the dark corner of yet another street. He wondered once more why none of the vehicles he had found so far in the city were drivable. He guessed that the EMP burst emitted by the Prophet of Regret's Carrier must have knocked out most of the electronics, he only wondered why the signs in the city seemed to be working fine. God, this war was going horrible, absolutely freaking horrible. Which was why this mission was so important, if they didn't retrieve this asset, then they were sure to lose the war. Alex walked down another street, ducking when he saw another sniper. Of course according to ONI projections they should already have lost the war, and according to some people, they already had.

Alex looked around; he did not want to encounter any more Covenant. Alex looked down the road, everything seemed normal. They're streetlamps, signs, advertisements, a McDonalds, shrubs, and…. there, a Brute! The creature was well hidden, he had to admit that, it was standing perfectly still, he was sure it was so that it could grab and kill any human that came by. Luckily, Alex wasn't just any human. He was a human with a sniper rifle.

Alex unholstered the weapon, aimed it at the brute, and fired two beams, the first one blew the Brutes head clear off and the second hit the wall behind it. Alex crept over to the creature and picked up its head, only to find that what he had thought was a Brute, was actually the head of a shrub. Alex swore under his breath, that was the 15th time this hour. Who the hell would design a city with Brute shaped shrubs? It made no sense!

* * *

FlashBack:Mayor Shrimpy

2455:New Mombasa

Town Meeting

"Alright, settle down people, settle down." a short man in a suit said, he was obviously standing on a stool of some kind. He was facing a crowd of reporters, they were obviously very interested in what he was going to say, and obviously didn't like him. Several of the reporters were whispering into mikes, reporting on the situation. The man in the gray suit removed his top hat and spoke again.

"As you all know, New Mombasa has been going through some pretty rough times lately. Our budget is in the red, and we have a definite shortage of pretty woman." Some of the newcomers in the crowd gaped, not used to seeing the mayor's antics and boldness. The older members just stared at him, one reporter shouted

"Just get on with it already Shrimpy!" Mayor Shrimpy shrugged, and then continued.

"Fine fine fine. Well as you know, not being able to exploit native people for their resources has really put a damper on our economy. On top of that, I was just informed that gambling is illegal. And apparently so is accepting bribes from lobbyists. And dumping sewage into rivers, and a multitude of other things I won't mention in case children are listening."

"Get on with it Shrimpy you crook!" Another reporter yelled. The other reporters began yelling at Shrimpy before he started again.

"Fine, fine, to stimulate our economy and ensure my reelection. I suggest that we pass a bill to legalize gambling, and bribes, and dumping sewage into rivers!" The reporters stared at Shrimpy with unwavering glares. "Fine, fine, I'll only legalize gambling." Shrimpy replied, some of the newer reporters started clapping, not knowing what to expect. Shrimpy raised his hand to quiet the applause. "And all the proceeds will go the government!" The applause abruptly died down, "I mean to Indian Reservations." The applause didn't begin. "Fine, we'll meet halfway, I'll give half of the money to Indian reservations, half of it will go to planting gorilla shaped shrubs, and the other half will go to me." The crowd was still silent.

"You passed it already didn't you." A woman in the first row said. Shrimpy fidgeted with his tie,

"Well um, you see, well uh." Shrimpy was then booed of the stage by the reporters.


	8. Groundhog Day!

Thanksgiving PSA

Alex: Hi I'm Alex Keyes, from the not so popular fanfiction ODSTs.

Chris: And I'm Chris IyIyt, from the same fanfiction.

Alex: Since Thanksgiving is coming up, the cast of ODSTs is going to tell you what we are most thankful for.

Chris: I'm thankful that Jonathan isn't in this story.

Alex: I'm thankful that I got the sniper rifle for once.

Aaron Nomante: I'm thankful that I survived Reach.

Roxy: I'm thankful that I'm not on the front lines.

Jonathan: I'm thankful that I'm not in this story.

Rookie: I'm thankful that I missed most of the fighting.

Buck: I'm thankful that the self destruct mechanism I implanted in Romeo's armor still works.

Romeo: I'm thankful for all the beautiful la, wait, what did Buck say?

Dutch: I'm thankful that I don't have to do any more flying today.

Mickey: I'm thankful that I haven't been caught beating children!

Dare: I'm thankful that you idiots haven't screwed anything up yet.

Ned:I'm thankful that my two best buds are here!

Shrimpy:I'm thankful that I've got beautiful wives, er wife, beautiful wife.

Kwassas & Yabap: I'm thankful that we got away from the Rookie.

Superintendent: Status: Glad this is over with.

Chris

New Mombasa

Please Review

*Cocks Pistol*

Seriously

Review

The

Freaking

Story

Please

Chris stared into the face of hell itself, but before he could joke the life out of the man standing in front of him, the man began to talk.

"Chris! Remember me! Needlenose Ned Ryerson! I dated Collie in high school before the cops told me to knock it off. Dear God, I'm so glad to see you! You'll never believe where I've been hiding for the past 10 hours! I'll give you a hint, it stars with a U." Chris stared the tweed suited man down, eyeing his tie with hatred. He had to focus if he wanted to get rid of Ned.

"That's not important, what's important Ned, is that you listen to me very, very, carefully, understand?" Chris asked, trying his best not to strangle the man with his bare hands. Ned nodded his head up and down in a ridiculous fashion before responding.

"Ok! But are you sure you don't want to know, it's really interesting." Ned said, stressing the word interesting. Chris sighed,

"Yes Ned, I'm sure I don't want to know. Now I need you to listen, we're going to get out of this city, what I need you to do is to close your eyes real tight. Ok?" Chris asked, trying not to make his voice sound any strained than it already was. Ned closed his eyes shut and bobbed his head up and down. Chris hit him over the head with an energy spade, knocking him out cold. Chris then dragged Ned's body inside the room, exited the room, and locked it. He was not going through this again, ever, ever, again. Chris backtracked his way through the building and ran out; he had to find a vehicle, and fast! Everyone had to get out of this city, now.


	9. Polonsky

Disclaimer:I do not own Halo or Bungie or Microsoft. I do, however, own Alex, Chris, Jonathan, Aaron Nomante(Pronounced Nomanite), Roxy, Lister, Yabap, Shrimpy, Kwassas(No relation to Kwassas from the Halo books), Killer(That weird saluting marine), and Rihannah.

Alex

New Mombasa-????-????-????

A WINNER IS YOU!!!

How doez I eat food?

What am the sky?

We lost the game.

Hug Kick Kill a Ginger day!

Earth

Sol System

BEAT IT!!!

Alex sneaked through yet another darkened street, he looked up at the sky and saw that it was raining; it really was beautiful out here when he thought about it. Well, beautiful in a weird, crazy sort of way. Of course now was not the time to be thinking of how beautiful the city would look if it wasn't in Africa, or filled with Covenant, or both!

Alex rounded the corner and saw two Grunts talking to each other; he quickly ended the tiny alien's conversation with his silenced pistol. Alex walked by the aliens when he saw something twinkle on the side of the road. He stopped midstep, the twinkling thingy could be anything, a hobo, a flood infection form, drugs, the precious, Chris, Diego, Aaron Nomante, Jennifer, a teleporter, Jonathan, Bucky, James, Halsey, Chief's head, Polonsky, a bunch of Commies, Polonsky, a redneck, a seven reference, Polonsky, or Polonsky. Alex took the risk and rushed over to the object.

He greedily scooped it up in his arms and dashed for cover in a nearby alleyway. Alex slinked along crouched, making sure there were no Covenant he sneaked along the tan and grey walls until he came to a locked door and a dead marine. Alex grabbed the soldier's dogtags and tucked them away in his backpack.  
"Open the door Super." Alex commanded the A.I. through his mike. Alex waited, but there was no reply from the New Mombasa A.I. "C'mon Super, this is no time for games." Alex said. There was still no reply from the Superintendent, and just as he was about to give up his com crackled with static. When Alex heard what the Superintendent had to say, he almost wished he hadn't replied at all.

"You open the door yourself you moron." the A.I. said in his mechanical voice. Alex looked down at the object he had found and realized that it was a shotgun, that was cool and all, but it wasn't going to help him open the door. Suddenly, Alex turned around as he heard a groan. He aimed his shotgun at the marine, who slowly raised his hand before speaking,

"You've got to get out of here." He said, his voice weak and strained.

"I know that," Alex replied, "Where's your squad soldier?" he asked.

"Dead." The marine replied, he coughed and Alex could have sworn he saw blood come out of the marine's mouth. Alex slowly stepped over to the marine and crouched down.

"Where's your injury soldier?"He asked. The marine coughed and gestured to his leg which was covered in a blanket. Alex removed the blanket and saw that the marine's leg was riddled with bullet holes, Alex tilted his head in confusion, wondering what had happened. The soldier coughed some more and Alex stood up and extended a hand out, "C'mon, I'm getting you out of here." The marine coughed some more and shook his head.

"No, no you're not; I'm not going to make it." The hairs on the back of Alex's neck bristled,

"Yes you are, now c'mon, grab my hand and I'll put you over my shoulder." The marine again shook his head.

"No I'm not, and you know it," the marine paused, "Major Peterson." Alex took a few steps away from the marine.

"How do you know my rank?" he demanded. The marine attempted a small grin,

"From Reach." the marine replied. Alex tilted his head in confusion. He tried to get a fix on the marine with his neural interface, but apparently something had happened to the man's neural interface, and his HUD was not reading him properly.

"Sergeant Lister?" He asked quietly, the marine nodded, Alex sat down. "What happened here, I need to know." Sergeant Lister coughed and turned to Alex,

"It started a few days ago." the sergeant began.

Staff Sergeant James Lister-UNSC Military ID-4543234-9B

UNSC Say My Name

3 Days before drop

1900 hours

Hallway 54C-E5

"Sergeant." Staff Sergeant James Lister turned around at the mention of his rank, only to find a single person behind him. A woman dressed in an unusual jet-black uniform that he would have bet a month's wages on signified that she was a high ranking Spook, the common term for someone employed by the Office of Naval Intelligence. He searched her uniform but he couldn't find any discernable indication of rank, but having heard rumors about O.N.I. he saluted anyway. The woman stepped closer to him and he could see that she had shoulder length red hair and ice blue eyes.

The woman walked until she was practically touching James, James didn't move, he only stood still with his hands by his sides wondering what this strange woman wanted with him. The woman whispered in his ear as he felt something slip into his hand from hers.

"There is an Experimental Smart A.I. currently at risk of falling into enemy hands in New Mombasa. I have the kill codes with me, but certain people would prefer that the A.I. is not terminated." the woman paused for a second before continuing. "_I_ would prefer that the A.I. does not have to be terminated." The woman's head tilted down and James looked at his hand, which now held a rather lofty amount of cR chips and a piece of paper. The woman looked back up, "Do you catch my drift Sergeant?" the woman asked.

"Yes ma'm" Lister responded. The woman nodded and walked away, leaving Lister standing in the dark of the ship with the cR chips and the piece of paper in his hand. Lister suddenly felt very, very, alone.


	10. Landing

Note:Thanks for all the reviews guys, I really appreciate it.

* * *

Staff Sergeant James Lister-UNSC Military ID-4543234-9B

Just outside of Uplift Reserve

Immediately after drop

"I knew it we're all going to die!" a marine shouted over the screeching alarms of the Pelican dropship they were in.

"Shut your trap soldier!" Sergeant Lister shouted at the man, this mission was going to hell, and the last thing he needed was one of his men encouraging it on.

"We're all going to die a horrible fire death, full of fire and metal and burning pieces of wreckage, and if we don't die then we're going to slowly bleed out on the streets cold and alone. I always knew it would end like this!" the soldier bawled, shaking his head up and down.

"I said shut your damn mouth private!" Lister yelled at him, pointing his assault rifle at the man, before the marine had a chance to say anything back the two men were interrupted as the frantic voice of the Pelican's pilot came over the intercom and a loud boom was heard from out of nowhere.

"Our engines' been hit! I can't hold her, brace for impact, everybody brace for impact!" The panicked man screamed. Lister began to shout orders when he heard the sound of metal tearing through concrete. Lister was thrown from his seat by the impact, and grabbed onto one of the Pelican's rungs as he desperately tried to climb back into the aircraft. Lister risked a glance behind him and saw a gaping hole in the wall; they had hit and gone through a building, looking forward Lister saw that they were still going through the building. Right to the other side of it, to be precise. The Pelican tipped to the side slightly and Lister could now see the concrete floor of the parking garage, a car flew by the Pelican's side, at least they were in the right place. There target was the top of this garage, from the top of the garage they could reach their objective more easily. Lister resisted the urge to cover his ears with one of his hands, though the screeching sound of metal on concrete bothered him immensely, he knew he had to use all of his strength to hold on. Lister looked back up, they were nearing the wall, then this was it. If the Pelican went through that wall, then the mission was failed, no one could withstand a 30 story fall from a building. Suddenly the Pelican came to a screeching halt, Lister heard a loud boom and looked up, the engines of the Pelican fizzled out, and so did the lights.

Lister jumped off of the Pelican and braced his legs, he landed on the concrete with a bump but quickly steadied himself. Lister pressed a button on his shotgun and the area in front of him was illuminated with light. A quick check of his HUD let him know that he wasn't injured, and a quick glance at the Pelican's engine's let him know that they were totaled. Lister rapped his hand on the Pelican's now closed door.

"Rise and shine men! Anyone alive in there?" He asked. Lister heard a muffling noise before the door unsealed and a marine saluted.

"Yes sir!" The marine stated.

"We got any injured." Lister asked.

"No sir." The marine replied.

"Well then, let's get moving. C'mon you lazy maggots, we got work to do!" Lister yelled into the Pelican." Lister smiled, they may not have an easy job, but at least he had a full squad to do it with.


	11. Dro, er Yanme

Christmas P.S.A.

Alex:Hello, I'm Alex, from the mildly popular fanfiction ODSTs

Chris:And I'm Chris, from the same fanfiction.

Alex: A lot of you have been wondering when the heck this story is going to end and stop popping up every week.

Chris:Well, the good news is that it's going to end soon.

Alex:But not that soon.

Chris:And there's going to be a sequel!

Alex: And I just realized this has nothing to do with Christmas.

Chris:No, no it doesn't.

Alex:Hey what's that ticking noise.

Chris: I have no clue.

Aaron Nomante: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

*BOOOM*

Authors Note:It actually is my birthday today, and yes I know it's past Christmas. Anyway that was a pipe bomb that exploded, for anyone besides me that wondered.

* * *

"Breaching in five, four, three, two, one!" A marine shouted as the metal door in front of them blew inward and Lister, taking point, jumped in. Several Grunts were lying dead by what remained of the door and even more were cowering in feel, covering their tiny faces with one hand and shooting blindly with the other. Lister kicked one of the aliens in the head, smashing its skull and causing several more to flee down the hallway as the rest of his squad filed in and mowed them down. Lister began to walk down the hallway, stepping over the bodies of the Grunts and ignoring the sirens outside. One of his soldiers stopped in the middle of the hallway and pointed out the glass window.

"Look at how far up we are, you can see the Carrier from here from here." He said. Lister was about to tell the soldier to shut his mouth and keep moving when he realized that A, they were in an elevated walkway from the parking garage to their target building and B, that they weren't supposed to be able to see the Covenant Carrier from here. Unless of the Carrier had moved away from its LZ, and the only reason it would do that were if it was going to…

"Everybody across the walkway, now now now!" Lister yelled as he began running across the walkway, not caring how many corpses he stepped on. His marine's ran after him, one yelled at him over the C.O.M.

"Sir! What's the hurry! Aren't we supposed to wait for the ODSTs to land before we assault the target?" He asked.

"Those ODSTs aren't going to make it son, we're on our own." He replied.

"Sir? What the hell are you talking about?" The marine began before another marine interrupted.

"Banshees! Coming in hot!" He shouted. Lister looked to his side and saw four banshees flying toward their position, their guns blazing as hot plasma zoomed through the flimsy glass and marines who were not fast enough screamed in pain as their flesh boiled away.

"Keep on running!" Lister shouted. But in his heart he knew that if those banshees kept on flying they were all screwed, which is why he was counting on that Carrier to do what he guessed it was going to do. Suddenly traffic came in over his com.

"To all UNSC forces, seek immediate cover, I repeat seek immediate cover, enemy Carrier is preparing to make an in orbital." The frantic voice was suddenly cut off in a burst of static as a loud explosion sounded. Lister and his marines saw a purple void fill the sky for a second before the once mighty Carrier disappeared from their view. The banshee pilots apparently were unaware that the Carrier was jumping, and were also unaware of the danger it posed to them. The boiling plasma stopped coming as everything lost power. One of the banshees crashed into the street, another one kept on going, a third hit the tail end of the bridge shaking it, and the fourth spun wildly out of control and crashed into a building down the street.

Lister pulled open the door in front of them as its power light faded. He dashed in as what remained of his twenty man squad, 13 marines, followed him. The last man in slammed the door shut as the power finally went off, emerging them in darkness.

"Everybody turn on their flashlights." Lister ordered and the room was filled with light.

"Sir! What the hell just happened?" A marine asked.

"What the hell do you think just happened private?" Lister responded. The marine waited a few seconds before replying.

"I have no clue in hell what happened Sir!" he stated. Lister nodded before speaking,

"Does anybody have any clue what happened?" Lister asked? Several marines shook their heads while others shouted out answers.

"The Covenant set off a nuke?" Someone questioned, Lister brought his head up in one swift motion.

"Who the hell just said that?" He yelled, the marines stood still. "I said who in the hell just said that?" He yelled. A marine raised his hand nervously.

"It was me sir." The marine said nervously.

"Goshdarn't Jenkins! Shut your dang mouth!" Lister began before a marine interrupted him.

"Wait sir, listen, hear it?" He questioned, pointing his SMG at the whitewashed ceiling. Lister aimed his shotgun at the ceiling, as he indeed did hear it, he heard a buzzing noise.

"Drones!" A marine shouted as he twisted and fired his weapon at the doorway, which promptly burst open as Drones began to rush in from everywhere, making quite a mess of the already cluttered office building. The marine who yelled Drones was promptly knocked down as a group of five drones knocked him over and beat him to death with their guns before being shredded by the squad's bullets.

Just as quickly as they appeared though, the Drones retreated, not even bothering to shoot back at the marines.

"What in the hell?" A marine said, scratching his head, as Lister wondered why the swarm had only gone for one man when they could have easily overpowered the battered marines.

"Maybe they don't like the name Drones?" A marine shrugged and suggested.

"That's got to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard son." Lister replied. Suddenly the Drones burst in again, this time from the ceiling, and pulled the screaming young man by his shoulders into ceiling as Lister and the other marines fired at them.

"Ok, new orders." Lister stated. "Never, ever, ever, say the word Dro." Lister caught himself, and corrected his near fatal mistake. "The D word." All of the marines nodded, as Lister gave orders to split up and go through both doors. Lister took point, sweeping his shotgun around as he looked, the building seemed oddly deserted of Covenant besides the Dro, er Yanme, Lister wasn't going to risk it. Who know what powers Yanme possessed; mind reading could very well be one of them. Lister and his marine's gradually began to suspect that their intel was off and that the Covenant might not even know that this building housed a next generation prototype A.I. as they began checking out yet another empty room.

Since the encounter with the Yanme they had had no Covenant contact at all, at least his men hadn't, Lister hadn't heard from the other men he had sent down the other hallway a half an hour ago, probably due to interference from the emp. Lister dismissed the worries, second squad was probably doing just fine.

"There's Grunts coming out of the toilet!" A marine shouted as he was gunned down from behind by a Spec Ops Grunt that was busy climbing out of a toilet. Second squad had split up from the main group only a half an hour ago to search the leftwards side of the building while first squad searched the right. Since the moment they had stepped into their first room it had been an absolute all out battle for their very survival.

They had had everything imaginable thrown at them. From Hunters and Ghosts to Brutes with gravity hammers and Grunts with fuel rod cannons. The Covenant had this building well defended for sure, first squad must have been having a hell of a time on their end. They would've called, but the last marine with a working com had been killed by a mob of Jackals ten minutes ago. Second Squad was looking forward to getting the hell out of this city, if any of them survived, that was.


	12. Finale'

"Get ready to open fire!" Lister shouted as his remaining five marines aimed their guns at the blast proof doors. They had got here five minutes ago, but as soon as they had grabbed the A.I. chip the doors had locked automatically. At first they thought it must be some sort of safety precaution, but they soon found out that it was something much, much, worse. The Covenant. The Covenant had accidently locked the door while trying to get in, and so Lister and his marines had chosen to stay put and wait, they stood a better chance of surviving that way.

Lister heard the sound of an energy sword being drawn.

"They're coming in!" Lister shouted. "Get ready!" he added while pointing his own shotgun at the door. But as the group tensed, waited for the Covenant to come, they heard something else. Plasma fire, screams, explosions, there was a fight going out there and the only voices they heard were those of Covenant. Finally the sounds stopped, and the door burst open, revealing a single Orbital Drop Shock Trooper standing in the doorway with a gravity hammer in his arms and a pistol on his belt. This made Lister even more nervous, who was this stranger? Lister didn't know, but he was sure he didn't trust him.

"Identify yourself." Lister shouted at the ODST. The man took off his helmet; he had wavy yellow hair and a grin that matched his green eyes.

"Aaron Nomante." The man said, before slaughtering the entire group in just a few seconds. He moved lightning fast, faster than Lister had seen any human being move before. Killing most of Lister's small squad with the gravity hammer and finishing them off with his SMG. Lister fired at the man with his shotgun as he crushed the final marine's neck. The man turned around, protected by his armor, and emptied an entire clip from his smg. Lister fell down on his knees in pain, blood starting to pool around him from his wounds. The man began to walk over to finish him off, but Lister wasn't going to give up that easily, when the man got closer Lister held up his hand slowly to let the man see what he had in it. A plasma grenade, courtesy of one of the Grunts he had killed earlier. Lister detonated the grenade, and everything went black.

"He didn't follow?" Alex questioned after hearing Lister's story. Lister shook his head before coughing.

"No sir," Lister's lips formed a slight grin. "Wouldn't be here if he had would I now?" He said before bending over into another coughing fit.

"And you've been here ever since?" Alex asked, and Lister nodded.

"Dragged myself over here, can't move anymore, I'm as good as dead." He said to which Alex shook his head.

"Don't say that," Alex replied before being interrupted by Lister.

"Neither of us has time for this," Lister said quietly, his voice sounding strained. "She's in my left pocket." Lister half spoke, half coughed, before letting his head lie limp on his shoulders. Alex reached his hand down into the dead man's pocket and pulled out a glittery blue and silver rectangular chip of metal. He turned around as the door behind him opened, and another ODST walked out, clad in slightly burned armor and holding an energy stave. The ODST's visor depolarized, revealing his friend Chris's face.

"You got it?" Chris asked. Alex closed his palm around the chip and nodded. "Then let's get the hell out of here." He said smiling.

Epilogue:

He escaped?

_Yes_

Witnesses?

_None still alive_

Good then

_There is the problem of the two ODSTs._

Forget about them, they won't give us any trouble

_I strongly disagree with leaving them alive._

We have one more of the prototypes back in our hands, that's all that matters.

_I have nothing more to say ma'm._

Good, because you're no longer needed.


End file.
